South China Sea and the media
The post today will center the attention on how the regional and international media presents the South China Sea case.When we did the same exercise with previously reviewed differences covered by this blog series TERRITORIAL DISPUTES we introduced a series of news about Kashmir, the Falkland/Malvinas islands, Gibraltar, Crimea, the Israel-Palestine difference, and others.
The South China Sea has such a regional and international relevance that the media dedicates this issue a complete section on their sites.
As a way of example:
The Guardian
The Guardian (link)
South China Morning Post
South China Morning Post (link)
BBC
BBC (link)
AlJazeera
AlJazeera (link)
New York Times
New York Times (link)
Why do these and many other media companies dedicate a complete section to the South China Sea?
Why is the area so important?
"The South China Sea functions as the throat of the Western Pacific and Indian oceans — the mass of connective economic tissue where global sea routes coalesce.
Here is the heart of Eurasia’s navigable rimland, punctuated by the Malacca, Sunda, Lombok, and Makassar straits.
More than half of the world’s annual merchant fleet tonnage passes through these choke points, and a third of all maritime traffic worldwide.
The oil transported through the Malacca Strait from the Indian Ocean, en route to East Asia through the South China Sea, is triple the amount that passes through the Suez Canal and fifteen times the amount that transits the Panama Canal.
Roughly two thirds of South Korea’s energy supplies, nearly 60 per cent of Japan’s and Taiwan’s energy supplies, and 80 per cent of China’s crude oil imports come through the South China Sea.Whereas in the Persian Gulf only energy is transported, in the South China Sea you have energy, finished goods, and unfinished goods.
In addition to centrality of location, the South China Sea has proven oil reserves of seven billion barrels, and an estimated 900 trillion cubic feet of natural gas."
Read more at
Business Insider (link)
NOTE:
This post is based on Jorge Emilio Núñez, Territorial Disputes and State Sovereignty. International Law and Politics (Routledge 2020).
Previous published research monograph about territorial disputes and sovereignty by the author, Jorge Emilio Núñez, Sovereignty Conflicts and International Law and Politics: A Distributive Justice Issue London and New York: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, 2017.
NEXT POST:
South China Sea and Vietnam
Friday 10th July 2020
Dr Jorge Emilio Núñez
Twitter: @DrJorge_World
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